Next Meeting Thursday, November19th Time Lapse and Astrophotography by Bill Basham

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Io Ð November 2015 p.1 IO - November 2015 Issue 2015-11 PO Box 7264 Eugene Astronomical Society Annual Club Dues $25 Springfield, OR 97475 President: Diane Martin 541-554-8570 www.eugeneastro.org Secretary: Jerry Oltion 541-343-4758 Additional Board members: EAS is a proud member of: Jacob Strandlien, John Loper, Mel Bartels.

At our November 19th meeting, club member Bill Basham will describe how he does his time lapse videos and astronomy photographs. Bill will demonstrate the time lapse program he developed that runs inside Canon Powershot cameras, such as the Canon G1X, and automatically adjusts the exposure as the lighting changes. Bill will also describe the techniques he has learned for taking astrophotos, including tracking, auto- guiding, and how to take pictures through a telescope. Here’s just one great image Bill has taken recently; see more of his work on p.4 and p.6. At our meetings we also encourage people to Helix Nebula © by Bill Basham bring any new gear or projects they would like to show the rest of the club. The meeting is at 7:00 on Thursday, November 19th at the Science Factory planetarium. Next First Quarter Friday: November 20th

Our October 23rd First Quarter Star Party was clouded out, and our Saturday backup was little better. We had three scopes and three guests to observe through them during the three minutes (or so) of clearing. Here’s hoping November will treat us better. Our next First Quarter Friday is on November Dues are Past Due! 20th. First Quarter Fridays are laid-back opportuni- EAS membership runs from October thru Sep- ties to do some observing and promote astronomy at the same time. Mark your calendar and bring your tember. If you haven’t renewed already, please scope to the College Hill Reservoir (24th and bring your payment to the meeting or mail your dues to the Eugene Astronomical Society, PO Box Lawrence in Eugene) and share the view with who- 7264, Springfield, OR 97475. Dues are still the ever shows up. Here’s the schedule for the rest of same low $25 they’ve been for years. Make your 2015. Star parties start at dusk or 6:00, whichever is later. checks payable to Eugene Astronomical Society, November 20 (70% lit) December 18 (55% lit) or just EAS if your pen is low on ink. Io Ð November 2015 p.2 October 15th Meeting Report

Our October 15th meeting attracted a nearly full house. The planetarium was filled with club members old and new, and several guests who were there for the first time. This was dues month, so we collected quite a few renewals and a couple of new memberships. It was also our annual business meeting, so we re- elected Jacob Strandlien and John Loper to the board of directors. (Diane Martin, Mel Bartels, and Jerry Oltion have another year on their terms.) Diane has agreed to stay on as club president and Jerry Oltion has agreed to stay on as secretary. Bruce Hindrichs showed us a proposed design for a big sandwich-board star party sign that he plans to make for the club. Thanks, Bruce! Mel Bartels gave a talk on telescope magnification, in which he showed how a few basic principles apply to just about any telescope. For instance, the minimum useful magnification is about four times the mirror diameter in inches. Below that you waste light because the exit pupil (the beam of light leaving the eyepiece) can’t fit into your eye. The maximum useful magnification is roughly 25 times the mirror diameter in inches before diffraction effects dominate the image quality. The sweet spot is somewhere inbetween, typically at a magnification that gives you a 2mm exit pupil. (Exit pupil is most easily calculated by divid- ing the telescope’s f-ratio into the eyepiece focal length. For instance, a 10mm eyepiece in an f/5 telescope would give you a 2mm exit pupil.) Mel taught us quite a bit more about magnification and de-mystified a lot of the misconceptions floating around about it. It was a great talk. Jerry Oltion then gave us a tour of the Autumn sky, showing us several objects that might not be familiar to everyone even if they’ve been observing for a while. He mentioned several good doubles that are still visible from light-polluted sky, some of which present a challenge to split and some of which are easy and offer nice color contrast. (Zeta Piscium, Zeta Aquarii, Gamma Arietis, Gamma Andromeda.) He also showed us some good galaxies and planetary nebulae that would reward a trip out of town. (M74, NGC 7479, NGC 246, NGC 253.) He showed us where we can see individual stars in a distant galaxy (NGC 604 within M33) and a couple of clusters that are so big they’re better in binoculars or by Stock 2, the Muscle Man Cluster near the Double Cluster in Perseus naked eye than in a telescope, yet most people have never heard of them. (Stock 2, the Muscle Man Cluster; the Alpha Persei Moving Group.) It was a fun meeting! Don’t miss next month when Bill Basham will tell us how he does his beautiful time lapse videos and astrophotos. UO Science Fair

The University of Oregon Science Fair, target- ing young children, was held on October 7th at Willamette Hall on the UO campus. Jim Kiely repre- sented the EAS there and reports: “Great turnout. Went through 5 bags of candy! :) Had presentation on solar wind and Sun’s energy production cycle. Video, mod- els and charts. Met some awesome future physicists. Humbling.” Thanks, Jim, for being there! Io Ð November 2015 p.3 Concert of the Cosmos

The Concert of the Cosmos, the astronomy- themed pipe organ concert organized by our very own Dan Rinnan and that has been put on twice in Eu- gene (once in 2008 with Jerry Oltion as narrator, and again last year with Bernie Bopp as narrator) will be shown again this November 15th in Corvallis. This concert is a tour de force of pipe organ music ac- companied by stunning visuals illustrating the themes of the various musical pieces. Those themes range from the Sun and planets to stars, novae, aurorae, nebulae, and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field reaching back nearly to the Big Bang itself. If you missed the local showings, it would be well worth your time to drive to Corvallis to see this one. Some of the region’s best pipe organists will be playing, and the music ranges from the thundrous to the sublime. There’s nothing quite like a pipe organ to get your attention, and nothing quite like the sight of the universe to render you properly awed. Go! M15 Wide Field Reveals Nebula

Mel Bartels continues to find things in his fast, wide-field telescopes that nobody has reported seeing visually before. This time it’s a wide swath of nebu- losity near M15. Deep photos do indeed show this very object, but whether it’s a faint reflection nebula, part of the “integrated flux nebula” that permeates the sky, or an extension of the Milky Way is an open ques- tion. This feature has apparently not been named yet. Who says there’s nothing left to discover visually? Mel is proving again and again that that’s not so. It just takes a practiced eye, a fast scope, and close attention to what you’re seeing. Way to go, Mel! Thank You Storage Junction Storage Junction has donated the use of a storage unit for us to hold our loaner telescopes when they’re not in use. EAS would like to thank Storage Junction for their generosity and support for our group. Please give them a call if you need a storage space, and tell your friends. Storage Junction is located at 93257 Prairie Road (at the intersection of Hwy 99 and Hwy 36, 3 miles south of Junction City) Phone: 541-998-5177 Io Ð November 2015 p.4 Morning Conjunctions

Venus, Mars, and Jupiter have been packed close Regulus together in the early morning all month. Early on the morning of October 9th, the Moon joined them and Alan Gillespie caught them plus the bright star Regu- Venus lus in one frame, all while the rising Sun was turning the sky blue. The planets played tag all month as Jupiter and Mars passed one another, then Venus passed Jupiter on its way to a conjunction with Mars on November 2nd and 3rd. The Moon will join them again on No- vember 6th when it will be near Jupiter, which will be even higher in the sky by then, and then on No- vember 7th the Moon will be near Venus, which will Mars be the lowest planet of the three. Venus Moon

Mars Jupiter Jupiter Morning Planets on October 9th, photo © by Alan Gillespie

Mercury 59 Leonis Moon

Jupiter Morning Planets on October 11th, photo © by Bill Basham Bill Basham caught part of the action on Octo- Venus ber 11th, and he got Mercury and the Moon in the frame, too. Mercury never quite reached the other planets, rising up into the morning sky for just a few days before dropping back toward the Sun. Jeff Phillips caught the image to the right later Sigma Leonis in the month after Venus had passed Jupiter. Mars It has been a dynamic month for the early morning sky, well worth the trouble of getting up early to watch it. Thanks to Alan, Bill and Jeff, all of whom have been documenting the changes and sending photos to our club email list so those of us who don’t do early mornings can still see the conjunctions. Morning Planets on October 26th, photo © by Jeff Phillips Io Ð November 2015 p.5 Globular Clusters Compared

While playing around with a new digital SLR camera, Jeff Phillips took the following three images with the same camera and settings through the same 6-inch telescope. They reveal very nicely what you might see through the eyepiece of a 6 or 8-inch scope on these same targets. They also clearly illustrate that all globular clusters are not alike. M15 has a tightly packed, dense core with little scattering around it, M2 has a somewhat less packed core with more halo, while M13 is nearly all halo. Their relative sizes are both intrinsic and a factor of distance. M2 and M15 are nearly equidistant, which means that M2 is simply larger than M15, but M2 and M13 are about the same actual size, which means M13 is closer. Compare them next time you go out; all three are nicely placed in the November sky.

M15 M2 M13

Photos © by Jeff Phillips Yet Another Club Member Goes to the Dark Side

Jon Schwartz thought it might be neat to observe from the comfort of his living room rather than go outside into the cold. So he got a Mallincam DSc and hooked it up via a long USB cable to his laptop computer. And thus astrophotography lured another of us into its clutches. Who knows where this will ultimately lead, but for now it has led to several neat screen captures, including he ones presented here. Thanks, Jon!

The Ghost of Mirach (a galaxy near bright star Mirach in Andromeda) © by Jon Schwartz The Ring Nebula © by Jon Schwartz The Ghost of Mirach (a galaxy near bright star Mirach in Andromeda) © by Jon Sxhwartz Io Ð November 2015 p.6 Bruce, Too!

Bruce Hindrichs has also been bitten by the astrophotography bug. Here’s his first image (!) with his new camera: an impressively de- tailed shot of the nearly full Moon. About image and camera, Bruce says: “The camera is a Sony A5100 (mirrorless) DSLR. For this one photo I used a feature on the camera called, ‘Hand-held Twi- light.’ With one push of the button it takes several shots, and then stacks them (like a simplified stack- ing software) and then saves one image.” Bruce has recently completed a photography class and reports that he now knows everything there is to know about this camera (uh- huh), so we can expect to see many more great shots from him in times to come. This one is presented here at high-resolution so you can zoom in up to 300%. It’s an amazingly crisp, well-exposed image, especially for Waxing Gibbous Moon © by Bruce Hindrichs a first shot. Way to go, Bruce!

And More from Bill Basham

Here are a couple more great photos from Bill Basham. These were just test shots while he tinkered with his autoguider. You can imagine what he’ll be getting once he figures out what he’s doing!

Eagle Nebula with “Pillars of Creation” © by Bill Basham M31, the Andromeda Galaxy © by Bill Basham Io Ð November 2015 p.7 LED Street Lights Come to Eugene by Jerry Oltion

The September 17th Register-Guard had an article about all the great new ways that people could increase light pollution with LED lighting around their homes. I responded to that with a guest viewpoint article in the September 29th issue, in which I pointed out that more light is seldom better. I got lots of positive feedback and was thinking that maybe I’d had some positive impact when the October 10th Regis- ter-Guard showed up with an article entitled “Eugene Updating Street Lights.” Uh-oh. Sure enough, the city is planning to replace most of its high-pressure-sodium lights with LED lights. I called Matt Rodrigues, the city engineer who authored the feasibility study that led to the decision to replace the lights, and we had a very productive conversation. It turns out that he did indeed consider light pollution when he made his recommendations, and he chose as many options as possible to limit any excess glare. He went with 4000K color temperature rather then the harsher, bluer 5000K or 6000K lights that some cities use, and he chose a design that offered three power levels: 29, 42, or 54 watts. Most of the new lights will be set at 29 watts, which produces about 2/3 the total light of the current sodium lights. It looks brighter on the ground because it’s all directed there, and it’s whiter. The lights are full-cutoff, which means that they don’t cast any light upward. That may mean an actual reduction in the overall skyglow over the city, but blue light scatters more than red light does, so we could wind up with even more. We won’t know until the swap is completed. Despite being full-cutoff lights, the glare as you approach one on the street is still appreciable. There are several lights already installed on Throne Drive, so I had a look myself and as I was driving down the street toward them I was going "Ow, ow, ow!" as I approached each one. They could definitely use more shielding. Fortunately, Rodrigues says that shielding them is possible, and the city has bought a supply of shields to accomodate people who ask for them. I suppose it would be too much to ask that they shield them all, but at least if you get one shining into your bedroom window you should be able to have the city mask it off. But alas, there will be no turning them off, nor any turning back. The vast majority of city dwellers want more light, not less, and LED lights will cut the city’s lighting costs to a fraction of what it is under sodium lights, so they’re clearly the wave of the future whether amateur astronomers like them or not. We can only hope that they’re not as bad as they look from underneath, and thank the city engineers who did at least attempt to keep their impact to a minimum.

An LED streetlight next to a more traditional high-pressure sodium light, photographed from both sides to give a valid comparison. The LED light glares more, but its total light output is lower. Photos by Jerry Oltion. Io Ð November 2015 p.8 ObservingObserving inin NovemberNovember

Last Q New 1st Q Full

Nov. 3, 4:24 AM Nov. 11, 9:47 AM Nov. 18, 10:27 PM Nov. 25, 2:44 PM Mercury Rise: 6:04 AM Mercury lost in Sun Mercury lost in Sun Mercury lost in Sun Venus Rise: 2:49 AM Venus Rise: 3:01 AM Venus Rise: 3:13 AM Venus Rise: 3:27 AM Mars Rise: 2:47 AM Mars Rise: 2:41 AM Mars Rise: 2:35 AM Mars Rise: 2:29 AM Jupiter Rise: 2:11 AM Jupiter Rise: 1:46 AM Jupiter Rise: 1:24 AM Jupiter Rise: 1:01 AM Saturn Set: 6:15 PM Saturn Set: 5:47 PM Saturn Set: 5:22 PM Saturn lost in Sun Uranus Set: 4:56 AM Uranus Set: 4:23 AM Uranus Set: 3:55 AM Uranus Set: 3:26 AM Neptune Set: 1:25 AM Neptune Set: 00:53 AM Neptune Set: 00:26 AM Neptune Set: 11:54 PM Pluto Set: 8:53 PM Pluto Set: 8:23 PM Pluto Set: 7:56 PM Pluto Set: 7:29 PM

All times Pacific Daylight Time (March 13 Ð Nov. 5, 2016 = UT -7 hours) or Pacific Standard Time (November 1, 2015 Ð March 12, 2016 = UT -8 hours)

Date Moonrise Moonset Twilight Sunrise Sunset Twilight Begin End Items of Interest This Month ------11/1/2015 22:05 11:59 05:11 06:49 17:03 18:40 Saturn leaves the evening sky this month. 11/2/2015 23:04 12:41 05:12 06:50 17:01 18:39 Taurid meteors visible during most of month. 11/3/2015 13:18 05:13 06:51 17:00 18:38 Slow moving, bright fireballs. 11/4/2015 00:03 13:50 05:14 06:53 16:59 18:37 Another good month to find Asteroid Vesta in 11/5/2015 01:02 14:20 05:16 06:54 16:57 18:36 11/6/2015 02:00 14:47 05:17 06:55 16:56 18:35 Cetus. 11/7/2015 02:57 15:15 05:18 06:57 16:55 18:34 11/1 Daylight Savings Time ends. 11/8/2015 03:55 15:42 05:19 06:58 16:54 18:33 11/2-4 Morning: Mars and Venus within 1° 11/9/2015 04:52 16:11 05:20 06:59 16:53 18:32 11/7 Moon near Venus and Mars. 11/10/2015 05:51 16:42 05:21 07:01 16:51 18:31 11/17 Leonid meteor shower peaks late tonight 11/11/2015 06:49 17:16 05:23 07:02 16:50 18:30 11/12/2015 07:47 17:55 05:24 07:03 16:49 18:29 into early morning of the 18th. 11/13/2015 08:44 18:39 05:25 07:05 16:48 18:28 11/19 Plato and Straight Wall nicely lit on 11/14/2015 09:39 19:28 05:26 07:06 16:47 18:27 Moon. 11/15/2015 10:30 20:23 05:27 07:07 16:46 18:26 11/20 First Quarter Friday Star Party . 11/16/2015 11:16 21:24 05:28 07:09 16:45 18:26 11/25 Full Moon in Hyades. Moon occults 11/17/2015 11:59 22:28 05:29 07:10 16:44 18:25 11/18/2015 12:38 23:35 05:30 07:11 16:43 18:24 Aldebaran early morning of 26th. (Disap- 11/19/2015 13:14 05:32 07:13 16:43 18:24 pearance 2:10 AM, reappearance 2:46 AM.) 11/20/2015 13:48 00:44 05:33 07:14 16:42 18:23 11/21/2015 14:22 01:55 05:34 07:15 16:41 18:22 11/22/2015 14:58 03:08 05:35 07:16 16:40 18:22 11/23/2015 15:35 04:21 05:36 07:18 16:40 18:21 11/24/2015 16:17 05:34 05:37 07:19 16:39 18:21 11/25/2015 17:03 06:46 05:38 07:20 16:38 18:21 For ongoing discussion of astronomi- 11/26/2015 17:54 07:54 05:39 07:21 16:38 18:20 cal topics and impromptu planning of 11/27/2015 18:50 08:55 05:40 07:22 16:37 18:20 11/28/2015 19:49 09:49 05:41 07:24 16:37 18:19 telescope outings, join the EAS mail 11/29/2015 20:49 10:36 05:42 07:25 16:36 18:19 list at http://eugeneastro.org/mailman/ 11/30/2015 21:50 11:16 05:43 07:26 16:36 18:19 listinfo/general_eugeneastro.org

All times are for Eugene, Oregon Latitude 44¼ 3' Longitude 123¼ 06'